Machine downtime suffered as a result of a fault condition in a machine such as, for example, a locomotive, can be costly, so efficient diagnostics systems are desirable to minimize repair time. In complex machines with multiple subsystems, it may be difficult to determine which subsystem is suffering from a fault or the particular cause of that fault without extensive analysis of the affected machine.
For maintenance and diagnostic purposes, it may be desirable to collect data relating to a machine during real-time operation for later retrieval. In some diagnostic systems, the data collected often includes much more information than what may be desired for a specific purpose or application. However, the data collected may be useful for maintenance of a fleet of machines, in addition to the particular machine from which the data is collected.
One solution for monitoring a locomotive is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,478 B1 (“the '478 patent”). The '478 patent is directed to an on-board monitor for a railroad locomotive that interfaces with the controller subsystems of the locomotive to collect parametric performance data. The specific data to be collected and the collection intervals are defined at a remote service center and transmitted to the on-board monitor. The on-board monitor also includes the capability to collect additional data or collect data more frequently in response to the results of certain triggering events.
Although the system and method disclosed in the '478 patent may monitor and report operational data of a machine, the system and method disclosed may still suffer from a number of possible drawbacks. For example, the system and method disclosed in the '478 patent only collects information from the particular locomotive that suffered the fault. When machines in a fleet have similar operating conditions, collecting data from multiple machines may lead to faster and more accurate fault identification. Furthermore, data collection from a fleet of machines may result in more quickly recognizing a common problem about the machines, such that similar faults can be prevented in the remainder of the machines in the fleet. Additionally, the system and method disclosed in the '478 patent, in response to a fault trigger or a request from another system, transmits all the data collected from its machine. In complex machines such as locomotives, this may result in transmission of a significantly large amount of data, a large portion of which may be wholly unrelated to the fault condition that triggered the data collection or transmission. When a particular event triggers a fault condition, it may be preferable to send only relevant data to decrease the time and cost of data analysis.
The presently disclosed systems and methods may be directed to mitigating or overcoming one or more of the possible drawbacks set forth above and/or other problems in the art.